One
by Vega Black62
Summary: A series of ficlets and drabbles about Neville and Hannah, their romance and life together. These won't be chronological.
1. Orchid

"This one's Susan's," Neville said. For her, he'd chosen a _Rudbeckia_ for its yellow rays surrounding black centers. It radiated warmth like a dozen Hufflepuff suns. It truly did, for he'd charmed the air about the plant to provide the summer heat it needed to blossom in chilly Scotland. Straightforward, and bright as a sunny afternoon, it was the perfect flower for Susan Bones.

"Yours is my favorite" Neville said to Hannah as he led her through the back of the greenhouse to a small, modest plant.

"_Cypripedium calceolus_, the Lady Slipper Orchid," Neville said. " No flowers yet, but look." He pointed to a photograph of an orchid in bloom, its yellow pouch framed by black twisted sepals like curls around a girl's face.

"It's beautiful, but ... when will it bloom?" Hannah asked.

"Not for years and years." he answered.

"What!"

"It's very precious, very rare. There's only one in the wild and it's surrounded by guards," Neville explained.

Neville examined the pleated leaves with satisfaction. Most, Wizard or Muggle, who ever tried to grow it, failed. Plants were merciless, if they didn't get what they needed they died. Magic helped, but it couldn't save the dying or resurrect the dead.

"Any common flower can bloom right away, An orchid like this takes time, effort. - it's special." Neville said.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After the battle Neville sat on his heels sifting through the wreckage of greenhouse three.

"Neville, you need to get some sleep... What're you looking for?" Seamus asked.

"My Orchid," Neville answered as he worked.

"I could Summon it," Seamus said. "Accio --"

"No! That could kill it. I have to do this by hand."

Hannah knelt beside Neville and began to pick through the debris."Of course I'm helping. It's my flower isn't it?" she said in answer to Neville's unspoken question.


	2. Choices

He'd been recognized and now they wanted to buy him drinks. He could tell.

"Why do you think this is so funny?" Neville asked. _Wonderful, there's four of them, _he thought. He didn't want to get drunk with obliging strangers. He had plans.

"The drinks aren't funny. What's funny is how much you hate getting them," Seamus said.

"This never happens to Harry," Neville complained. "People just stare at Harry and whisper."

"They're afraid of Harry. He's intimidating," said Seamus.

The stranger approached and stood by their table. "Ever since I heard how you told that Snake man to sod off, I've wanted to buy you a drink."

A grinning Seamus asked him and his friends to join them.

The stranger noticed Neville had a firewhiskey, so he ordered him more. When the others began to do the same, Neville gave his signal to Hannah to bring him anything that looked like a drink but was alcohol free. Episodes like this had gained Neville an undeserved reputation for being able to down prodigious amounts of whiskey without visible effect.

The men talked at length as they bought him round after round, mostly speaking about their own experiences in the war. These were Muggleborns and had suffered a great deal. He liked them; they didn't act like they expected to see the Sword of Gryffindor by his side.

At midnight while Hannah closed the place, Neville lingered. He walked over to Hannah and took a sponge from her. "I'll finish this while you close out the till. -- It's purely selfish. I was thinking I had two choices. I could either ask you to go out with me and help you clean up, so we could leave or I could sit at the bar while strangers bought me drinks till I fell off my chair. I decided to try for the first option. What do you say?"


	3. So Close Yet So Far

"Hannah, Wake up. It's almost time."

The voice jerked her awake. Someone was too close, trapping her legs so she couldn't move. Angry panic rose up until she remembered – she and Neville were crammed inside the base of Slughorn's statue of Hector Dagworth-Granger, waiting to raid his potion cabinet. She was on a mission and like an idiot she'd fallen asleep.

"I'd let you sleep, but we're almost ready to go." His words were more breath than sound. She could feel their warmth against her face. "Look."

She rolled over on to her hands and knees and peered through their hiding place peephole. Zambini sat slumped forward, arms hanging limp, face flat against the table. For a wild second, she thought he was dead.

"He's asleep. He replaced Nott, sat down and went right out. We'll watch him for awhile and then we'll move."

They settled into almost comfortable positions and waited.

"You're worried about Justin, aren't you?" Neville asked, his voice pitched so quiet that Hannah imagined she felt the whisper rather than heard it. "You called for him in your sleep."

She'd dreamed she had seen Justin in prison staring at her with sunken accusing eyes.

"I was nasty to him after my mother died -- crazy nasty. Then I stopped talking to him. We never really broke up; I just cut him off. When the ministry fell and they were going after Muggleborns, I couldn't find him to help him. Now I'm scared for him." She was proud that she didn't cry.

"Hannah, everyone goes crazy when they lose someone. Justin understands that. You don't even know he's in trouble. He's probably on a beach in France right now, worrying about you."

She didn't point out that it was three in the morning but said instead, "You're very kind. Do you know that?"

"I'm not kind; I'm truthful. Let's go. Remember you search. I guard." He crawled out of their hiding place, and then reached back to give her his hand. They had work to do.


	4. Flamingos

Neville handed McGonagall's letter back to Hannah. She'd been offered a chance to take her NEWTS and didn't know what to do.

"I was a prefect and a good student, but I can't take exams. I fall apart."

A smile pulled at the corner of Neville's mouth.

"Go ahead laugh. You remember our OWLS and those damn flamingos, everyone does."

"I loved those flamingos," he said. "They're the reason I didn't get a Troll on my Transfiguration OWL."

She cast him a skeptical look.

"No really," he said. "One of them grabbed McGonagall's glasses and ran. I was terrified of that woman until I watched her chase a giant pink bird, demanding it stop making a fool of itself and hand over her property. That was better than a Ridikulous spell."

Now, Hannah's lips quirked into a smile.

"I almost thanked you then. Maybe I should now." He kissed her. Her mouth, curved by her smile, slowly matched his. His lips brushed her neck and then he whispered against her ear, "I'd win a "Most Embarrassing Moment in School" contest against you every time."

She cupped her hands around his face and kissed his lips. "I love you," she said.


	5. Greatest and Easiest

An owl swooped into the Leaky Cauldron dropped a letter and a package where Neville was sitting at the bar and landed, knocking over Neville's drink with his outstretched wings. Hannah quickly wiped up the spill, amused at how messes followed Neville even when he wasn't the cause. Neville gave her a rueful look; she shrugged and smiled back.

Neville read his letter, tossed it on to the bar and wrote a quick response, sending it off with the mess making owl. He grabbed a wad of photographs from his package and flipped through them looking very pleased as he did so.

It was near closing and the crowd in the pub was thin so Hannah sat down in the seat next to Neville. "What's this?" she asked.

"Photos of my last trip to the Himalayas," he said as he studied each one and then laid it onto the bar

Amid the pictures of strange and beautiful plants were mixed some of Neville -- drinking coffee as the sun rose over a mountain in the distance, flying his broom slowly over a meadow full of plants, none of which Hannah could recognize, or standing at the front of a tent laughing while a girl stuck her head out and waved at the camera and the tent walls flapped wildly in the wind.

Hannah glanced at the letter lying on the bar. _Why didn't you put in for this trip to the Andes? Family responsibilities again I suppose. We all miss you. The sweet botanist from Taiwan is here. Aren't you sorry you're not? She asked about you. Don't say you don't know who I'm talking about, because I know you do. We need you out here; I've been going over the identification keys for the Smilacina and I'm already confused…" _

Hannah found herself wondering if the girl in the picture was the same one who wrote the letter. She looked guiltily over to Neville who was staring intently at a picture of the biggest Venomous Tentacula that she had ever seen. She really shouldn't be reading his mail. She poured him a drink to replace the one that spilled.

"Hannah look here," Neville called. "Do you want to see the greatest moment in my herbological life?"

"Your greatest?"

"Absolutely"

"I thought growing my orchid was your greatest."

"All right my second greatest."

Neville handed her a photo. In it he was leaning low over a broom hovering along side a cliff face examining a small white puffskein of a plant. Covered in fluffy, white hair, it looked more animal than vegetable. "That's the rarest plant I've ever seen in person."

"Just looking at this plant is one of your greatest moments?"

"Oh yes! The plant's that rare."

The cliff face rose above a deep rugged valley. Hannah could see the thin blue line of a river far below Neville's broom.

"I thought you didn't like high places?" she asked.

"I hate them," he answered. "But to see the plant, I had to brave the cliff. I just reminded myself that I have done things that scared me in the past and survived."

Hannah couldn't help herself. "Like telling Lord Voldemort to go to hell?" she asked.

Neville looked up momentarily confused. "What? That was the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. I had no intention of joining that man. I was talking about learning to ride a broom."


End file.
